CAcert informs about risks on the internet and shows opportunities to increase safety considerably. Who wants to get informed about free certificates, e.g. SSL-Server certificates, or client certificates for secure e-mail communication is invited to meet CAcert staff for discussion on CAcerts’ OpenRheinRuhr booth. Additionally we are expecting exciting talks about the activities of CAcert and future prospects. Active members are welcome, questions will be answered gladly.

The Android distribution Replicant has recently decided to include the CAcert root certificates in default installations.

Replicant was started as a pragmatic way to achieve software freedom on mobile devices, providing a fully free version of Android. Over the years, support for a dozen of different mainstream devices was added.
However, most of these devices are severely flawed when it comes to software freedom, privacy and security. Thus, it was decided to focus the development effort of Replicant for a few specific devices that perform better regarding those aspects, instead of trying to catch up with the latest mainstream devices. Replicant is sponsored and supported by the Free Software Foundation.

CAcert joins the open source event FOSDEM at ULB Brussels, Belgium on weekend February 4th/5th. Our stand is located in the K building on the ground floor. Our staff will happily answer your questions regarding CAcert and its certificates and perform assurances with you. Also for the CAcert fans of you we will bring our polo shirts for purchase.

If you come to the FOSDEM there are two important meetings you shouldn’t miss:

Saturday 16:00 room H.2214 talk “Trust – the root of evil?!”
One of our active members Benedikt Heintel is going to have a talk about trust: In a highly connected world like ours is trust one of the most important assets. But what if the root to trust is not trustworthy? This talk enlightens why most commercial CAs are not trustworthy by default, what we can learn from 2011’s cases like dutch DigiNotar and Malaysian DigiCert, what makes CAcert different, why CAcert is not in the browsers by default and what we do to make it happen.

Sunday 12:00 noon room Ferrer assurance party
Like previous years, participants can get assurances for their CAcert account to issue certificates valid for two years. For the assurance you will need at least one piece of official government-issued photo identification. Please register beforehand on the CAcert website and download the CAcert Certificate Assurance Programme (CAP) form. It is recommended to bring at least ten printed forms with you.